'Love is in the air'

By Susan DeRosia
Ashland Daily Tidings

	Classical piano duo Kristina Foltz and Alexander Tutunov will perform a concert of romantic favorites from Bach to Brubeck at 8 p.m. on Friday, February 14 at the SOU Music Recital Hall. For ticket information, call 552-6398.

Since the Middle Ages, people have associated February 14, the feast day of Saint Valentine, with love, possibly because it was the season for birds to choose their mates. It's a tradition we (would it be too strong a word?) love. Whether it's the mating kind of love, the flirtatious kind, or the friendly kind, love is in the air.

Rogue Valley residents will have a variety of ways to express and enjoy their love and here are just a few:

• The Rogue Gallery & Art Center is offering a special Friday Afternoon Tea & Talk on Valentine's Day. After teaching at the Art Institutes of Seattle and Houston for over 26 years, artist and scholar Michael Gibson reveals the art of love through the history of art in a special talk on Friday, February 14. Call 772-8118 to make reservations for high tea and this scintillating talk. Refreshments provided by Caffe Diem.

• There will be a Valentine Day Dance Party, Friday, February 14 from 8 to 11 p.m. with live music by Gabriel & the Technicians at Evergreen Ballroom, 6088 Crater Lake Ave, Central Point. Admission is $12 at the door, $8 students 19 and under. Free rumba lesson and dessert buffet. Presented by USA Ballroom Dance Club and Tina Ferris. For more information, call Esther at 899-1933.

• Leslie Kendall & Friends will return to the Bulls-Eye for a special Valentine's Day concert featuring great songs of love and romance starting at 9 p.m. on Friday, February 14, at the Bulls-Eye Bistro, in the Ashland Springs Hotel at 212 E. Main St., Ashland. Kendall will be joined by Ed Dunsavage on guitar, Joe Cohoon on bass and Chicken Hirsh on the drums. There is no cover charge.

• Lantz's Dantzers will sponsor a "Cupids Dance" starting at 7 p.m. on Friday at The Rogue Valley Square Dance Center, at 3377 Table Rock Road, in Medford. Denny Lantz will call the squares and Bud Trowbridge will cue the rounds. For more information, call 772-1431 or 779-0815.

• On Saturday, February 15, the Provolt Grange will be the site of a Valentine's Dance Party. There will be a dinner at 6 p.m., by Big Momma and music begins at 7 p.m. Performing will be Coyote Rising, Libby Goines, latin jazz folk singer, Euphoria, Ismat Gamal, Giant Puppets from Takilma and more. The Provolt Grange is located on Highway 238, 1 block south of the Provolt Store. For more information, call 541-846-7525.

• 'Mystery & Mayhem at the Mansion' on Saturday, February 15 features Eden Valley Players Shaun Hennessy, Julia Strickland, Colleen Fischer and Josh McIntyre. For Valentine's Day, the mystery dinner theater reveals how far one may go to get love. The surprise ending involves ambition, lies, secret desire, polygamy, a marriage proposal and handcuffs.

• Some of the many musical friends of the late Cynthia Fisher will join in an afternoon celebration of life and love at 4 p.m., Sunday, February 16 at the First United Methodist Church, 175 North Main, Ashland. Dave Marston and the Nowhere Men, Leslie Kendall, Michael Mish, Beth Baker, and the SOU Jazz Choir, led by Kirby Shaw will perform a joyful program in Fisher's memory. An $18 donation is requested at the door. All proceeds of the event will go to the Cynthia Fisher Memorial Fund.